Complements of our/America's push to destablize Iraq while the job in Afghanistan remained unfinished, the world--NATO, UN, you name it--now has two concurrent priorities.

I'll be curious to see if countries like Norway, Spain, etc. devote these Iraq troops over to the Afghanistan to solve that problem or if that the "main priority" is just political wind to get them home until the problems become too big on a world scale.

Amazing how up until Spain decided to surrender to the terrorists and leave Iraq, all the liberals and their allies in the media were saying that the U.S. should have had "international support" and that we went in "unilaterally".

Now all of a sudden, there are dozens of countries with troops and support personal in Iraq but they're only mentioned if they decide to run away as well.

Private contractors rank #3 in the Coalition, behind US troops and British troops, in terms of sheer numbers. The exodus of those other token support countries (and their hundreds of troops) only exacerbates the point of unilateralism and how these countries feel that even such paltry support isn't worth the risk any more.

There are some Norwegian soldiers in Iraq right now. But they were never a part of the invading force (US, UK, Spain, Denmark, Italy and others), but on a strictly civilian mission, and their stay was never meant to last more than half a year.
Current events has nothing to do with this redrawal at all.

AFAIK, the Norwegian "forces" (if it's even appropriate to call them that) weren't withdrawn because anyone's concerns, but because they were due to return home anyway and the Norwegians didn't extend the assignment. To say that "Norway Follows Spain Out Of Iraq" is a wee bit incorrect, in my opinion.

Walk together, talk together all ye peoples of the earth. Then, and only then, shall ye have peace.

I don´t think it´s people/forces leaving that would help Iraq or anybody else; What´s needed is people/forces starting to do the right thing for a change.

At this stage with everything screwed up that far a complete pullout would just create yet another disaster. The damage is done - now the cleanup will be a lot more expensive than it might have been otherwise, but it still needs to be done.

And Afghanistan is far from over as well - if it´s going to be neglected the way it´s been so far, this one will go back to hell just as certainly as Iraq!

Because only a small minority of the international community was involved (especially when you´re comparing population figures - although most of the actual populations were against it anyway), and without UN authorization on top of that. Look at the troop numbers and it´s even clearer (with mercenaries in third place!).

Look at the troop numbers and it´s even clearer (with mercenaries in third place!).

You say "mercenary" as if it's necessarily a bad thing...... if you're referring to the PMCs involved in Iraq; well, they're in Afghanistan as well. Karzai's bodyguards are US PMC employees - the exact company, I believe, used to be called DynCorp, but I think CSC bought them out a while ago......

Being a professional soldier is certainly not a disdainful career choice.....

They´re given military authority without any democratic control. They´re basically thugs for hire. I know very well that they themselves don´t see it that way and most of them are (hopefully) trying to behave properly. But the situation their "deployment" is creating is highly problematic.

It´s another attempt to do the war "on the cheap" - no matter the cost.

If you have read my posts regarding Spain (Before VC-10 put his political views before the forum and deleted them) you would know that I am completely against those cowards for what they have done, HOWEVER this is not the case with Norway, as mentioned above they are not leaving early and they are not just abandoning all of the other troops and leaving them with all the extra work without notice. Norway has a very legit reason for pulling out of Iraq, they feel that they resources are spread too thin and they have a long-term commitment to Afghanistan which they are going to fulfill. Norway was there when called upon and I commend them for that. They now feel that it is in their best interest for national security reasons (not letting into the terrorist) to give notice that they will have to pull out of this part of The War On Terrorism, however they continue to support the coalition in Afghanistan.

They´re given military authority without any democratic control. They´re basically thugs for hire. I know very well that they themselves don´t see it that way and most of them are (hopefully) trying to behave properly. But the situation their "deployment" is creating is highly problematic.

The private military companies involved are businesses; it's in their best interest for having continued employment to behave properly. They're also paid very, very well; and they simply will do things for money which normal soldiers wouldn't - dangerous duties and so on - and are preferable to indiginous forces when it comes to protecting foreign dignitaries like Karzai in Afghanistan; they're less likely to be swayed by their personal convictions, because they have few if any. As I said, they're in it for the money, and can be trusted because they're bound by a contract.